There is a relatively common problem that happens to a large number of people every year. This problem is called black mold. If you’ve never heard of black mold, it’s basically a mold that colonizes and breeds around damp wet areas such as behind walls near leaky pipes. If your homes pipes are old (if your home is 20 years old chances of this happening are high) and they develop a leak, this leak, even if it’s just a drip every once in a while, will start to saturate the wall and areas around the pipe itself. In time this damp drywall, wood, or other material will start to incubate mold. It’s called black mold due to it’s color and appearance when it’s infestation is high.
If you look under the sinks in your home and notice any black mold developing, you may have a problem. If people in your house are getting sick, you can bet it’s from the black mold spores released into the air. Black mold is detrimental to your health and in small children with developing immune systems, people with a low immune system function, or even people sick with diseases that compromise the immune system- can’t fight it and get incredibly sick to the point of possibly dying.
This is not a problem you can ignore. Once you think you have an infestation call a black mold removal specialist and start figuring out if the problem is minimal or an infestation. These specialists know how to kill mold and to remove the spores from your home. As the mold dries it releases a lot of microscopic air born spores. You breathe these in, it can land on your food, in your drinks and more. This is a very nasty infection that can hit everyone at once!
The specialist will enter the home cautiously and quarantine it at the same time. They will first go into the home and using special equipment will determine the spore count. This tells them both the infection amount and can lead them to the actual mold itself to remove. Once they’ve determined there is an infection and how much, they go right to work vacuuming the air to remove any airborne spores. They will determine if the furniture is salvageable as spore infested furniture is like asking to get sick and there is no way to remove it completely.
It may be a week or two before you can go home but once you get back you will need to monitor the situation to make sure no new black mold infestations develop.